Monday, February 04, 2008

Beware!

When you make your reservations at a hotel and they inform you they are doing “some renovations”, beware.

The meeting where Mr. Pop was to speak last week was to be held at the Hyatt Hotel in Sarasota Florida. It only made sense that we should stay there at the hotel for convenience among other reasons. Big mistake!

When we arrived at the hotel is was quickly apparent there were renovations going on in the lobby. When we checked in we were assured that there were no disturbances in the area where our room was located. When we were taken to our room the first thing we heard were workers in the room above with hammers and other loud tools as they removed a tile floor. Even the bellman who brought our bags to the room said that the renovation noises were unacceptable.

We went back to the check-in desk and asked for another room. The gentleman in charge at the desk sent us to another room with assurances that this room would be peaceful. As we put our stuff away in the new room things seemed fine.

Wednesday morning as Mr. Pop was working at his computer putting the finishing touches on his speech for Thursday, all hell broke loose. The demolition of the interior of the room above us began. There were drills, hammers and other tools of mass destruction. There were no other rooms available at this time so we were doomed to the room from hell. It was so loud at times that we could not hear one another speak. This was immediate headache inducing noise.

After Mr. Pop successfully gave his speech on Thursday, we made a quick determination that we would get the hell out of there early Friday morning, instead of Saturday morning as we had planned. When we went down to the front desk to tell them of our change of plans, we expected that the hotel might want to charge us for Friday night anyway, but we were pleasantly surprised. The lady at the desk said she understood completely why we would want to leave and also informed us that the floor above us had been scheduled for renovation during the time of our stay. Remember we has been assured we would be in a quiet room. We had been lied to by the gentleman who told us we were in a pleasant area of the hotel. He knew better.

Bottom line, Hyatt Hotel of Sarasota was more concerned about making money during their renovation that they were about the comfort of their guests. Is that another form of corporate greed? Would we ever stay at a Hyatt again? I seriously doubt it.

18 Comments:

First of all, I am relieved that you have found those pesky WMD. They were in Sarasota the whole time.

It figures, hidden among the Republicans. Bastards.

And you PoP and Mr PoP made the ultimate patriotic sacrifice to find them. As a result, you may be persecuted by our government.

Oh wait, they were not real WMD!

Regarding the hotel -this does not surprise me one bit. I used to travel every other week on business- for many years.

"There will be no noise" is a common lie told by hotel employees all over creation.

What is worse PoP is that the purveyor of said untruth is some dopey clerk or even a "manager" of sorts who follows the direction of his "leaders" and owners.

The actual Hyatt people would never speak to someone as insignificant as you and Mr PoP!

A long time ago- in the 80's, I had a very bad experience in a Hyatt in Roslyn VA. (for the record, I did stay in many Hyatts over the years and it was not all bad) Anyway I really complained vociferously about the situation and was given a free weekend coupon.

When I used the coupon many months later on personal trip, I had dinner with some friends from DC. One of them had brought a friend along who used to work at said Hyatt.

It was at that point that I learned that I was the recipient of what was commonly known as an "Asshole Certificate"... yes that is what the management of that hotel used to call it. If you complained and they gave you something like that, they also felt compelled to you an asshole for demanding some form of justice.

Nice.

Anyway, I am so sorry you had to deal with that nonsense.

And selfishly, I am glad you are back on the tubes, I missed you and Fred the Cat very much.

Glad you are back PoP. Sorry you had a bad time. First rule of travel is never stay at a hotel under renovation and the second is demand satisfaction if your stay is not acceptable. Most Hilton brand hotels will give you your money back if you have had a bad experience. Hampton Inns make a point of advertising this fact and I have gotten a free night or two when I have had a bad stay. They usually are quite nice about it.

While I understand the convenience of staying at the same hotel as the speech I feel I should offer my own pious advice and recommend never staying in a "corporate" hotel when most of the time there are at least a few other options in most places. Whether it's a small bed & breakfast or a local hotel, you'll rarely find the same arrogance and most of the time I find the folks are very accommodating and happy to assist whenever you have a question about the town, a problem with the room or whatever your issue may be. Plus, you get the satisfaction of knowing your hard earned dollars aren't going to continued escalation of excess and greed. The only downside is bed & breakfasts often need to be booked well in advance and local hotels, and of course the obvious that it's not nearly as convenient.

OK, I'll get off my high-horse now. Glad to hear it all worked out and you got your "asshole certificate" (love that name for it). Hopefully the next time you and Mr. POP spread the good word you'll receive the accomidations youdesrve and a bit of respect as well.

I had a similar experience at an Extended Stay hotel in Utah. Talk about annoyed. Hotels should just close down when they renovate. It is not fair to their guests to have to listen to all that "racket."

My daughter stayed at a Hyatt on a business trip last year and when she was getting ready for bed, she was in the bathroom and stepped on broken glass. She figured they must have broken a glass while cleaning. So she called for housekeeping to clean it up. They did, but then when she went to bed, she felt a stab in her back and it was a shard of broken glass! They gave her a free gift certificate for the spa in the Hotel. So I guess she got an "Asshole Certificate" like FranIAM was talking about.

the most important lesson out of all this is NEVER give Fred a friday off. the hotel was all abt cat karma!! just kidding. my biggest pet peeve during my many travels is when they put you in a non-smoking room, and it stinks of smoke.

I've always bailed on staying if I find out that there are renovations ongoing, and this story reinforces that prejudice. This kind of stuff just shouldn't happen, and at the very least they should have comped you for the room. Too bad there are so many shortsighted weasels who don't think of the long term damage that their greed creates. Let this be a cautionary tale like "Yours is a Very Bad Hotel".

Ugh--nothing makes me madder than noise when I'm in a hotel. I usually make sure to earn that Asshole Certification right up front by making demands before I even get my key:1. No kids anywhere near me2. Nowhere near an elevator or stairs3. High enough up to NOT hear the racket at the pool, gym, etc.

I figure I'm just saving myself aggravation later. And if they think I'm an asshole at check-in, wait 'til they see me when my demands are not met! Oy vey! Rock stars got nothing on me.